Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report released on Friday.
ACN has been the subject of several other reports. Redburn Atlantic upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $410.00 to $445.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $363.00 to $350.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Accenture from $379.00 to $419.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Accenture from $430.00 to $400.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Mizuho reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $398.00 price objective (down from $426.00) on shares of Accenture in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $387.00.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on ACN
Accenture Stock Up 0.3 %
Shares of ACN traded up $0.88 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $316.88. 3,381,158 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,390,528. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $355.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $341.83. Accenture has a twelve month low of $261.68 and a twelve month high of $387.51. The stock has a market cap of $212.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.19.
Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The information technology services provider reported $2.77 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.11. Accenture had a net margin of 10.89% and a return on equity of 28.30%. The company had revenue of $15.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.85 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. Accenture's quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Accenture will post 12.09 earnings per share for the current year.
Insider Transactions at Accenture
In related news, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 20,316 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Jean-Marc Ollagnier sold 6,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $315.91, for a total transaction of $1,974,437.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 161,581 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,045,053.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Ellyn Shook sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $371.81, for a total transaction of $1,859,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 20,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,553,691.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 35,500 shares of company stock valued at $12,276,123. Company insiders own 0.07% of the company's stock.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Accenture in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,850,765,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Accenture by 101,214.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,040,402 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $1,078,141,000 after acquiring an additional 4,036,414 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Accenture by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,642,841 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,440,976,000 after acquiring an additional 2,163,582 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Accenture by 20.2% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,879,123 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,063,048,000 after acquiring an additional 989,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main increased its position in Accenture by 100.0% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 1,751,531 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $614,615,000 after acquiring an additional 875,723 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company's stock.
About Accenture
(
Get Free Report)
Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.
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